KATY PERRY

Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, California. She started singing at an early age in her parents’ ministry in their church between the ages of 9 and 17. She grew up listening to gospel music, was not allowed to listen to what her mother called “secular music”, and attended Christian schools and camps. She also learned to dance when she was young. She got her GED and after that decided to leave school to pursue a music career. Katy says she started singing “because [she] was at that point in [her] childhood where [she] was copycatting [her] sister and everything she [would do]. She would take her sister’s cassette tapes and rehearse the music and perform in front of her parents and they suggested she take vocal coaching. She took their advice and took lessons from the age of 9 until she was 16.

When Katy was 15 years old her singing at Church attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills. They taught her how to craft songs and play the guitar. Katy recorded her first record album at the age of just 15 years old! She signed under the Christian music label Red Hill. She went under the name of Katy Hudson and released a self-titled gospel rock album in 2001. The album was not successful.

At the age of 17, Perry left her home for Los Angeles, where she worked with Glen Ballard on an album for Island Records. For a few years Glen helped develop her song writing. That album was not released and Katy was dropped by The Island Def Jam Music Group. Some of Perry and Ballard’s collaborations included “Box”, “Diamonds” and “Long Shot”, were posted on her official MySpace page. “Simple”, one of the songs she recorded with Ballard, was released on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. “Long Shot” and “I Do Not Hook Up” was later recorded by Kelly Clarkson for her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted.

Katy signed to Columbia Records in 2004. This label was not letting Perry have much control and were not open to her vision. She began recording her own and when she had eighty percent completed, Columbia decided not to finish it and dropped her from the label. While waiting to find another label, she worked in an independent A&R company called Taxi Music. In 2006, Perry was featured in the tail-end of the video to P.O.D.’s single “Goodbye for Now”. She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf’s video, “Learn to Fly”.

Katy was recommended by Columbia’s publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler to Virgin Records chairman Jason Flom in 2006. Jason was convinced that Perry could be that breakthrough star, and at the start of 2007 extended discussions with Columbia resulted in Perry signing to the newly created Capitol Music Group, a merger between Virgin and Capitol. They in turn took the rights to her album she had made while with Columbia.

Katy’s songs included “I Kissed a Girl”, “Hot n Cold” and “Ur So Gay”. Which got the attention of singer Madonna, who mentioned her on KISS FM and KRQ’s JohnJay & Rich morning show in Arizona. On March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on the ABC Family television series, Wildfire, on the episode “Life’s Too Short”.

The song “I Kissed a Girl” was to be the album’s leads single but would anyone want to play the controversial theme? The answer was yes, and the first station to pick it up and take a chance was The River in Nashville, which was ironically located in the Bible Belt. Katy embarked on the annual Warped Tour music festival, which her management used to “establish her as a credible performer and make sure she wasn’t seen as just a one-hit wonder.” The song became a smash hit, not only in the United States but also in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom!

One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008, to mixed critical reviews. The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. After Katy wrapped up her appearance at the Warped Tour, she went on tours in Europe. She later launched her first headlining tour, the Hello Katy Tour, in January 2009.

During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for Get Him to the Greek; her scene, in which she kisses her future fiance Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film.

Katy’s second studio album was titled Teenage Dream. The singles that were released for that album include, “California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Firework”, “E.T.”, “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”, “The One That Got Away”.

Katy Perry attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. She is pictured below with Rihanna and Justin Bieber backstage at the Awards.

From February 2011 to January 2012, Perry embarked on an extensive world tour in support of Teenage Dream, the California Dreams Tour, playing 124 shows in Europe, Australasia, Asia, North America and South America and earning over $59 million. Perry made her perfume debut, releasing a fragrance named “Purr” in November. It is packaged in a cat-shaped bottle, and is available through Nordstrom stores. She followed it up with the fragrance’s first flanker, “Meow”.

Katy is known for her unconventional style of dress. She defines her fashion style as “a bit of a concoction of different things”.

Katy Perry’s duet with Elmo in 2010 was pulled from the TV broadcast of ‘Sesame Street’ due to feedback from viewers on YouTube. Producers found the segment to be too hot for TV Her appearance on the long-running children’s series was set to air as part of the show’s 41st season.

Katy married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010, in a traditional Hindu ceremony near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location where Brand proposed. Sadly they divorced 14 months later on December 30, 2011.

Her official video for “Wide Awake” the final chapter from ‘Teenage Dream’ was released on June 19th, 2012.

Katy Perry Tidbits:

-She has Portuguese, German, Irish, and English ancestry.

-She is the second child of two pastors.

-She has an older sister named Angela Hudson and younger brother named David Hudson.

-She changed her surname to Perry, her mother’s maiden name, because “Katy Hudson” was too close to film actress Kate Hudson.

-She attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of time.

-She has said that, Glen Ballard, who produced Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, had a “huge influence” on her.

-She is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life and says it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak.

-On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, posing for the cover to the June 2008 issue of the fictional magazine Restless Style.

-She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted, and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards.

-Katy performed backing vocals on the song, “Another Night in the Hills” from Gavin Rossdale’s 2008 solo album Wanderlust.

-She made her film debut in the 3D family film The Smurfs as Smurfette.

-She released a Barbie doll that represents her style.

-Katy was once again recruited by EA Games to promote their new expansion pack The Sims 3: Showtime for their The Sims game franchise. The game content was based on Perry.

-“I Kissed a Girl” was a commercial success, peaking at number one for seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

-She has written several songs for other singers, including Ashley Tisdale (“Time’s Up”), Selena Gomez & the Scene (“Rock God” and “That’s More Like It”), Kelly Clarkson (“Long Shot” and “I Do Not Hook Up”), Jessica James (“Bullet” and “Girl Next Door”), Lesley Roy (“Slow Goodbye”), and Kady Malloy (“Wish You the Worst”).

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